Padres streak approaches 7,500 games with no no-no

There are those who believe the Padres have been cursed for throwing a no-hitter ever since 1970, when original manager Preston Gomez pulled Clay Kirby (above) for a pinch hitter after eight no-hit innings against the Mets.

There are those who believe the Padres have been cursed for throwing a no-hitter ever since 1970, when original manager Preston Gomez pulled Clay Kirby (above) for a pinch hitter after eight no-hit innings against the Mets.

When Padres left-hander Drew Pomeranz steps to the mound Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia, a Mets fan living in South Dakota will have the game playing in the background on his iPad while he works.

And Dirk Lammers will do what he does each game, listen for the Padres’ opponent to get its first hit. Lammers then will go to the website he runs — nonohitters.com — and add one to the counter that tracks the number of games the Padres have gone since their inception without pitching a no-hitter.

The counter will click over like a car odometer, the number going from 7,499 to 7,500.

Imagine that.

Seventy-five hundred games with no no-no. That’s 47 years, 10 days, but who’s counting.

Lammers, actually.

Oh, so close

The Padres have taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning five times in the franchise’s 48-year history:

This all started in 2008 with his beloved Mets, not the Padres. Lammers grew up in Manalapan, N.J., about 40 miles from Shea Stadium.

“What really piqued my interest in no-hitters was the frustration after Tom Seaver threw his the year after he was traded from the Mets to the Cincinnati Reds,” said Lammers, referencing the 4-0 no-hitter Seaver threw against St. Louis in 1978. “I didn’t understand how he could reach the ninth three times with us and then get it as a member of the Reds.”

Because it was the Mets, who, outside of their 1969 miracle, had a mostly laughable existence over their first two decades. After all, they debuted in 1962 with 120 losses.

“Mets fans have always been comfortable being the lovable loser, at least during different times of the team’s history,” Lammers said. “The fact we could never notch a no-hitter was somewhat of a fun streak for fans to celebrate.”

Lammers started keeping count of Mets games without a no-hitter in 2008 when he created his website.

“I thought maybe if I did a website tracking it will break the streak,” said Lammers, a journalist who works for the Associated Press. “I like to think that stupid superstitions from time to time have a little more power than they do. ... It took four years, so I don’t know if it had any effect.”

On June 1, 2012, the Mets’ Johan Santana held St. Louis hitless in an 8-0 home win over the Cardinals. The Mets counter was forever frozen at 8,019 games.

That left just one team in the major leagues without a no-hitter — the Padres. The franchise also held the distinction of never having a player hit for the cycle, an oversight corrected last season in Denver by outfielder Matt Kemp.

Lammers didn’t know where to take his website after Santana’s no-hitter. He had generalized the site more, including all kinds of no-hitter information. That led him to writing a book, “Baseball’s No-Hit Wonders,” that was published last month. It includes a chapter on the Padres.

It was after a trip to San Diego and a visit to Petco Park that Lammers decided to recalibrate his counter and follow the Padres. He has been tracking their games the past four seasons.

“I try to watch them at least until they give up the first hit,” said Lammers, who then goes to the website counter to “up it by one, tweet it out and move on.”

The Padres have come close to a no-hitter on many occasions.

They’ve had 28 one-hitters, although on only half of those occasions has the drama lasted until the seventh inning before the hit came.

The Padres have had 20 games go into the eighth inning without allowing a hit. They’ve had five games go into the ninth without allowing a hit.

Twice they’ve been one out away from history — with Steve Arlin in 1972 against the Phillies and Luke Gregerson (the fifth Padres pitcher of the game) in 2011 against the Dodgers — before the hit came.

The most memorable moment in their no no-no history came in 1970 in what has come to be known as “The Curse of Clay Kirby.” The right-hander was lifted for a pinch hitter by Padres manager Preston Gomez after throwing eight no-hit innings against the Mets at San Diego Stadium.

With the Padres trailing 1-0 and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Gomez sent Cito Gaston to the plate to hit for Kirby amid protests from the crowd.

“I knew the fans would be upset, but I play to win,” Gomez said after the game. “I know the Kid (Kirby) feels bad, but it was a decision I had to make. It (the booing) won’t bother me. I would rather take a chance on winning than to lose on a no-hitter.”

Gaston struck out.

Padres reliever Jack Baldschun allowed a single to Bud Harrelson to open the ninth. The Mets collected two more hits in what became a 3-0 win, dropping the Padres from 29 to 30 games out of first place in the NL West.

“I was a little surprised when he took me out,” Kirby said at the time. “I never like to come out of a game, even if I’m 100 runs behind, but (Gomez) had his mind made up.”

The Padres have been on the wrong side of a no-hitter nine times, the first just a month before the Kirby game in 1970, when they were no-hit by Pittsburgh’s Dock Ellis. Years later, Ellis said he accomplished the feat while tripping on LSD.

There have been 294 no-hitters in major league history. Of those, 124 have come since the Padres’ National League debut in 1969.

One of the most cruel ironies in all this is that the Montreal Expos, like the Padres an NL expansion team in ’69, got their no-hitter out of the way just nine games into their existence. Bill Stoneman did it in a 7-0 win over the Phillies. Three years later, Stoneman threw another one for good measure.

“From the fans’ superstition,” Lammers said, “Clay Kirby getting pulled by Preston Gomez with the no-hitter intact so early in their history kind of makes you wonder if that was the time to get the no-hitter and it’s cursed them. ...

“They’ve certainly had plenty of good pitchers who are capable of throwing one. History shows that anyone like Bud Smith (who won seven games in his career, including a 2001 no-hitter against the Padres) and Bobo Holloman (who won three games in the majors) can throw one, so you don’t even need a great staff to get one.”

Lammers is optimistic the Padres will end their streak before matching the Mets’ mark. In fact, he predicted at a book signing earlier this year that Tyson Ross would accomplish the feat this season.

“When he’s on, he’s on,” Lammers said. “Just watching him and some of his starts, I just got a gut feeling it’s going to be him.”

Added Lammers: “Heck, last year they got their first cycle. Maybe this is the year for the first no-hitter.”

No-hitter Numbers

1 — Cincinnati’s Bumpus Jones is the only pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his first major league appearance, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-1 on Oct. 15, 1892.

2 — No-hitters thrown in back-to-back games by Johnny Vander Meer, on June 11 and 15, 1938. He beat the Boston Bees (nee Braves) 3-0 in the first one and the Brooklyn Dodgers 6-0.

7 — Record number of no-hitters thrown by Nolan Ryan, for the Angels (four), Rangers (two) and Astros (one). The Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax is second with four no-hitters. Bob Feller, Larry Corcoran and Cy Young each tossed three no-hitters. Twenty-two others have thrown two no-hitters.

9 — Games the Montreal Expos, who entered the National League with the Padres in 1969, needed to throw a no-hitter. Bill Stoneman did it in a 7-0 win over Philadelphia on April 17, 1969.

25 — No-hitters thrown by Dodgers pitchers, which leads all major league teams.

294 — Number of no-hitters throw in major league history. George Bradley of the St. Louis Brown Stockings threw the first one, beating the Hartford Dark Blues 1-0 on July 15, 1876. Washington’s Max Scherzer threw the most recent one, beating the New York Mets 2-0 on October 3, 2015.

8,019 — Number of games for the Mets without a no-hitter before Johan Santana threw one on June 1, 2012, in an 8-0 home win over St. Louis.

8,945 — Games between no-hitters for the Philadelphia Phillies. They had one in 1906 by Johnny Lush and didn’t have another until 1964, when Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game.